Damn Small Linux - Not!

Newbie · Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Memphis, TN

All,
I have downloaded DSL to my old laptop (Gateway Solo 2100, 150MMX, 160 MB RAM, 1.5 GB HD. After much trial and error, I got it to load. Thanks ElderGeek!
Now I can't use my USB thumb Drive or my Proxim Gold a/b/g card. When booting from a live CD, the thumb drive was located as sda1 and I was able to mount. It still seems to be able to see sda1, I just can't mount the drive. When I try I get the error msg
"mount can't find /dev/sda1 in /etc/fstab or etc/mtab". Any ideas? I am a complete newbie and very detailed, step-by-step help would be appreciated.

Thx

Newbie · Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Memphis, TN

A little more info as I try to solve my problem...

I opened ATerminal

I recieved the prompt
dsl@dslbox:~$
I typed
su
I recieved
root@dslbox:/home/dsl#
I typed
mkdir /mnt/sda1
I recieved
mkdir: cannot create directory '/mnt/sda1': File exists
I typed
mount /dev/sda1
I recieved
mount: can't find /dev/sda1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

I really don't understand LINUX. I have bought a couple of books trying to understand what is happening here, but no luck yet. Any help would be appreciated.

Thx

Newbie · Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Memphis, TN

I attempted to edit my fstab file with the following
At the prompt
root@dslbox:/home/dsl#
I typed
/etc/fstab
I recieved
bash: /etc/fstab: Premission denied
I typed
/etc/mtab
I recieved
bash: /etc/mtab: Premission denied

Ideas??

Thx

john280z · Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 2 Location: North Carolina

I think you were trying to run the /etc/fstab. That gives me the same error like you described.
To edit a system file, you need to (as root) call up an editor first, such as:
"vi /etc/fstab" or "nano /etc/fstab". If you are not famiular with these editors, practice with them first (please) as mistakes here can cause the system not to boot anymore if this is on a hard drive.

johnm

Newbie · Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Memphis, TN

Thanks for the info John. I opened the fstab file in Leafpad 0.7.9
It looks like this

/dev/hda2 / ext2 defaults,errors-remount-ro 0 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy vfat defaults,user,noauto,swhowexec,umask-022 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto 0 0
# partitions found by dsl
#dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2 ext2 noauto,users,exec 0 0
#dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 vfat noauto,users,exec,unmask-000,uid-knoppix,gid-knoppix 0 0
#Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda1 none swap defaults 0 0

This looks like a similar post of the results of a fstab file so I cannot tell if this is correct.

Can anybody spot problems in this file? If not should I look elsewhere for the problems with mounting the USB Thumb Drive?

Also I now believe that my CD drive is not working and I don't think I see the proper entries in the above file. Is this correct?

Thx

roberts · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Posts: 320 Location: OC CA USA

You should be able to use the mount tool to mount it.

It was detected that is why you have an /etc/fstab entry.

You need to be root to mount and umount.

sudo mount /mnt/sda1

Newbie · Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Memphis, TN

I would have thought that would work from everything I have read. It does not.

I open the ATerminal
I recieve
dsl@dslbox:~$
I type
sudo_mount_/mnt/sda1 (the underscores are really spaces)
I recieve
mount: can't find /mnt/sda1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

so I tried to go to the root 1st
At
dsl@dslbox:~$
I typed
su
I recieved
root@dslbox:/home/dsl#
I typed
sudo mount /mnt/sda1 (I also tried mount /mnt/sda1)
I recieved
mount: can't find /mnt/sda1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

This does not make sense to me from what very little I know. Keep in mind that this is an old laptop. Vintage 1996/97/98.

Any and all help is appreciated!

Newbie · Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Memphis, TN

This is not working. I had a Red Hat Admin look at the install today and he said that all of the drivers are loaded and he dosn't know why it isn't working.

I loaded DSLn because I thought it would recognize hardware better.

If I were to reload which DSL distro should I use?

roberts · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Posts: 320 Location: OC CA USA

You can always try

sudo fdisk -l

And see if your machine can actually detect the drive.

If you are using a vintage computer, I prefer the smaller kernel of DSL for these older machines.